Trump links Greenland threat to Nobel Peace Prize snub, EU eyes trade retaliation

[RandySF]

PARIS/OSLO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought "purely of Peace" as the row over the Arctic island on Monday threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe.

Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, threatening punitive tariffs on countries which stand in his way and prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures.

The dispute is threatening to upend the NATO alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades and which was already under strain over the war in Ukraine and Trump's refusal to protect allies which do not spend enough on defence.

It has also plunged trade relations between the EU and the U.S., the bloc's biggest export market, into renewed uncertainty after the two sides painstakingly reached a trade deal last year in response to Trump's swingeing tariffs.


https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-tells-norway-he-no-longer-feels-obligation-think-only-peace-2026-01-19/

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Here is the letter that trump sent to Norway linking Nobel Peace Prize to USA takeover of Greenland.

trump is mentally ill

Link to tweet

CONFIRMED: Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has acknowledged Trump’s letter is real.

The letter reportedly ties Norway’s Nobel Peace Prize decision to Greenland, questions Denmark’s “right of ownership,” and declares the world isn’t secure unless the U.S. has “Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”

PBS’s Nick Schifrin reported the text was obtained from multiple officials and circulated by NSC staff to European ambassadors.

It reads like a meme.

It’s not.

Here is another version

[sarisataka]

3. "We" did not have boats landing there also

The boats that landed in Greenland also landed on the shores of North America more than 400 years before Columbus ”discovered” the western hemisphere.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. MaddowBlog-Trump connects his Greenland crusade to his failure to win a Nobel Peace Prize

“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” the president said in a truly bizarre text message to Norway's prime minister.

In case there were any doubts, that utterly bonkers message Trump sent to the Norwegian prime minister? It’s entirely real.

He effectively argued, in writing, that his crusade for Greenland is partly the result of the Nobel committee hurting his feelings. #madking www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-19T15:39:53.345Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-connects-his-greenland-crusade-to-his-failure-to-win-a-nobel-peace-prize

But in case these circumstances didn’t seem quite ridiculous enough, Trump managed to take matters to a whole new level in a message he sent over the weekend to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, in which he suggested part of his Greenland crusade is rooted in his failure to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

The message, first published by PBS, read in its entirety:

Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

....For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that Trump’s message was filled with several factual errors (he has not, for example, “stopped” eight wars). Let’s also brush past the fact that he apparently believes the Norwegian government is responsible for awarding Nobel prizes (it’s not).

Let’s instead consider the nature of the American president’s pitch: Norway hurt his feelings by failing to give him an award he wanted but did not earn, which means he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace,” and which further leads him to believe that the NATO alliance should simply let him buy an arctic island, which isn’t for sale and which does not want to be part of the United States, with money he does not have.

There’s been an ongoing conversation for quite a while about whether Trump deserves to be seen as a “mad king.” As the public digests his message to the Norwegian prime minister, it’s likely that conversation is poised to grow considerably louder.